Taiwan doomsday comes to nought

“Still, the NCC could be accused of suppressing freedom of the press if we mishandled it,” Chen said, adding that the commission was in a bind.

May Chen (陳依玫), chairwoman of the self-disciplinary committee at the Satellite Television Broadcasting Association, said the story had news value and was something people were concerned about.

“It generated such a strong reaction from the public ... and we could not pretend that it never happened,” May Chen said. “Had we chosen not to report it, we would have been conducting self-censorship.”

She added that most TV reports stressed that it was an act by a small group of people and tried to balance out the reports by interviewing seismologists and CWB officials.